


The Fudge. How the Fudge. Holy Fudge.

by ElleOh



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-30
Packaged: 2021-01-07 23:22:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21225944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElleOh/pseuds/ElleOh
Summary: So maybe Petey's been hanging out with Quinn a lot lately.And maybe it bothers Brock just a little.Brock is suddenly small (smaller than Quinn small) and Petey is talented in many areas. Childcare might not be one of them.





	1. Chapter 1

It starts with a roadtrip.

Or, really, it starts at the end of Summer, and the beginning of the new season, and it starts with Elias, alone.

It feels familiar in a way, he began last season alone too. Coming off Worlds, arriving in Vancouver, feeling very small in an enormous city. Thankfully he had hockey to keep him sane amidst the noise and the cameras, and after he had settled in a bit, he had the team.

At first it was mostly the other Swedes looking out for him, inviting him to dinner, but soon there was also Brock. Brock had been a lot at first, wrapping Elias in bear hugs every time he saw him, ruffling his hair, making awful attempts at Swedish.

But in time Brock became his friend, and there was chirping, and Brock helping him with English, and of course, goals.

This Summer, Brock had been going through a lot of things, and coming up to training camp he hadn’t signed. Elias joked about driving out to Minnesota and dragging Brock back. It was mostly joking.

So he worked on his hockey, and he started hanging out with Quinn. He wasn’t bear-hugging the rookie, but they practised and ate waffles and it was nice.

Until it was weird.

“It’s fine.”

Elias quirks an eyebrow, leading Brock to roll his eyes and sigh.

“Honestly Pete, it’s fine.”

“Sure,’ Elias shrugs, ‘That’s why you are sulking in your stall.’

“I’m not sulking!” Brock replies, sulkily,

“I just assumed we’d be roomies again this year, that’s all.”

Elias runs a hand through his hair and takes a seat next to Brock, who’s not meeting his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I guess I thought you’d have your own room this year, too cool for the rookie now.” When Brock doesn’t reply, Elias nudges him, and Brock claps him on the back before basically jumping out of the stall and grabbing his bag,

“It’s all good man, I’ll see you on the plane!”

So yes. Weird.

He sits with Quinn on the flight, and Elias lets Quinn pick his bed once they’re at the hotel.

His sleep is restless and ends abruptly when his phone buzzes at 5am.

The screen is filled with a goofy selfie Brock took of the both of them, but when Elias answers, there’s no response.

_Weird _he thinks as he pulls on a sweatshirt and steps into his loafers, because he can’t just go back to sleep right now.

_Really weird _he thinks when he reaches Brock’s room and notices the door slightly ajar.

“Brock?” He calls out in what he hopes is a 5am-suitable voice, and wanders to the bedroom, But Brock appears to have vanished. His bed covers are thrown back, the washroom is empty, and his phone is on the nightstand.

“Brock?” Elias calls, feeling foolish for misplacing an entire adult man, who has probably just gone for a run or something.

There’s a shuffling noise just outside the bedroom, so Elias creeps gingerly towards the door, 

“Are you going to jump out and scare me? That’s pretty childish” he’s playing tough, but he really does hate jump-scares.

What he finds around the corner though, might be even scarier.

“P-Petey?” stutters the little blond kid, practically drowning in a North Dakota t-shirt, right before bursting into tears.

Weird doesn’t even begin to cover it.


	2. Petey, Piggy-back rides and Pancakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there!  
Thanks for reading this silly little thing :)

* * *

Elias is staring.

He has been working on the staring, since it got so much attention last year, Brock’s even taken to elbowing him or kicking him under tables if he’s ‘doing that evil-Petey thing again.’

But right now, Elias is staring, and Brock’s not stopping him because Brock is struggling to open a juice-box from the minibar because Brock is a child.

“I don’t understand.” Elias mutters, to the apparent amusement of his tiny winger,

“You keep saying that!” Brock says, kicking his feet against the chair.

Elias drops his head into his hands and groans,

“So you don’t know how this happened?”

“Nuh-uh,” Elias lifts his head to see Brock now standing in front of him, holding out the juice-box expectantly, smiling that smile of his.

It’s the smile more than anything, that makes Elias believe that this is actually Brock, as crazy as that seems. Once the crying had subsided and he was able to convince the child to sit down, he began muttering to himself in Swedish, to the great amusement of Brock. Elias tried to get some answers, but all he got were shrugs, and _I dunno_'s and _Petey, too much questions! _

With the juice-box situation sorted, and Brock now transfixed by some cartoons, Elias knows he needs a plan, and pulls out his phone.

_Come to Brock’s room, now. _

_Kinky._

_No. There’s a weird Brock thing._

_Is he sleep-talking again? Cause you can just kick him._

_Please._

Elias regrets texting Stecher before he even replies. 

He regrets it even more when he arrives with Jake in tow.

“Why are you here?” Elias grumbles through the crack in the door, but Jake just grins,

“Just wanted to see what’s got you all worked up Petey-Pie”

Troy just shrugs and pushes his way through the doorway, Jake smacking Elias’ ass on the way through.

“So, what’s going on Petey?” Stech asks, looking around the room.

“Brock is small.” Elias gestures towards the armchair, the TV still blaring, before realising that Brock has vanished.

Jake is giggling next to him, which he ignores, but Stech is at least looking concerned.

“What do you mean, small?”

“I mean I came to see him, and he was all little, a kid, you haven’t seen this before?”

Troy just shakes his head, Jake moves to sit on the couch, making rude gestures behind Elias’ back.

Elias calls for Brock again, and then notices the toes peeking out from the bottom of the curtain by the TV. 

“Brock?” he repeats, in a softer voice this time, ignoring the incredulous looks that Jake and Troy are giving him as he gets down on his knees by the window.

“Hey, do you want to come out and see Troy and Jake?”

“No thank-you,” comes the reply, but then curtain is pulled back a little, and Brock peers out, gesturing to Elias to come closer as he whispers.

Elias stands, and turns to Troy,

“He wants to know if Phoebe’s here,” he says calmly,

“Uh, no,” Troy stammers, moving to the arm of the couch as if in a daze, “but I have some videos on my phone?”

There is no movement from the curtain, but Elias nods and smiles weakly at Troy,

“I was saying to Brock before that we should go and get some breakfast, maybe we can look at some Phoebe pictures while we eat?”

The curtains shuffle this time, and Brock steps out, still clutching the material tight to his chest.

“Can we get pancakes please, Petey?” 

“Uh, sure,” he says with a smile, and Brock brightens, wrapping his arms around Elias’ neck.

“Thankyou!” he beams,

“Holy fuck,” gasps Jake, which earns a smack on the arm from Troy as Brock’s eyes widen and he looks to Elias, horrified,

“Petey! Did you hear what Jake said!?”

“I did, you, uh, you shouldn’t use that word Jake.”

“That’s right,” says Troy, clearly trying not to laugh,

“If you’re going to speak like that, you won’t be getting any pancakes!”

Elias can’t help but wonder what people would think if they saw the four of them right now.

Elias in his sweatshirt, pyjama pants and loafers, Troy in a tracksuit, Jake in whatever he probably slept in last night.

And then there’s Brock. A chubby-faced little kid in an oversized hockey t-shirt, currently riding on Jake’s shoulders and giggling like a maniac.

Brock hadn’t seemed too keen on Jake at first (showing his good taste, thought Elias) but the promise of a piggy-back was too much to resist

“I guess we can buy some clothes from the gift-shop,” Troy suggests, “TUNA! Do not drop the kid!”

Elias shakes his head, 

“You sure you haven’t seen this happened before?”

“No, man. I can honestly say I’ve never seen Boeser randomly turn into a child.”

Elias can’t believe how calm Troy is being right now, as if this is just something a little odd, and not totally mind-boggling. He’s just thankful that the hotel has given the team a private dining room for breakfast, and as it’s a day off, most of the guys are still asleep. 

As they walk towards the dining room and Brock sees other people milling around, he begins to squirm on Jake’s shoulders, 

“I wanna get down,’ he whines, pulling at Jake’s hair.

“Ow! Ok, ok!” Jake cries, setting the kid down and rubbing the back of his head as Brock races over clumsily, burying his face in Elias’ leg.

“Um. Hi.” awkwardly, Elias crouches down so that he is eye-level with Brock, who reaches out to play with Elias’ hair.

“Hi Petey.”  
“You don’t want to go inside?”

Brock shakes his head, “Too many people.”

“Yeah, but it’s the team, you know the team?”

Brock frowns, “Kind of?”

Elias rests a hand on his shoulder, “Well, everyone here is your friend, so you’ll be ok.”

“And you’ll stay with me?”

“Of course.”

The stack of pancakes is almost as tall as Brock, and as Elias carries it over to their table, he’s unsure who’s more excited, Brock or Jake.

“Who’s the rugrat?” asks Sutter, sidling up beside Elias.

“Uh, it’s Brock,” Elias shrugs.

“Wait what?”

It doesn’t take long for their table to become the centre of attention. Elias is happy that Brock is distracted by pancakes, and the photos of everyone’s dogs because the questions are flowing thick and fast, and it’s making Elias’ head spin.

“Is this a prank?”

“What the hell?”

“Are we kidnapping now?” 

It’s Leivo who saunters up to the table, looks at Brock and sighs,

“Not this again.”

According to Josh, this is not a totally uncommon thing, he’s seen it in Toronto. A few of the vets come down to join them, and relay stories of this happening across the league when players have been going through periods of high stress.

Brock’s shy but polite when his teammates speak to him, although he makes it _very_ clear to Adam Gaudette that he is 4 and a half, not three. A couple of the guys who have kids are good at making him laugh and feel more comfortable, and he eventually moves off of Elias’ lap and cuddles up to Troy. Suttsy’s in Elias’ ear, telling him that he’ll let coach know what’s going on, and for the first time this morning, Elias feels like he is breathing normally again.

Then Bo comes around the corner, chatting to Quinn, and Brock leaps from the table, sending cutlery flying and the team into peals of laughter.

“Cap! Cap!” the kid cries as he runs over, barrelling into Horvat’s legs. 

“Hey, whoa, slow down there, bud!” Bo laughs as Quinn looks on, bewildered. Bo crouches down and, placing a hand on the kids’ shoulder, smiles gently.

“Hi there.”

Brock beams, “Hi Cap.”

“What’s your name little guy?”

“Brock,” the kid giggles, and Horvat grins,

“That’s a cool name! You know I have a teammate named Brock!”

“Caaap!’ cries Brock, throwing his arms around Bo’s neck and hugging fiercely, “It’s me silly!”

There’s confusion, and then something like recognition on Bo’s face and he looks up at his entire team, in varied states of hysterical laughter. 

“Team meeting.” He mouths to the group sternly, ruffling his hand through Brock’s hair.

“Now.” 


End file.
